Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed the next leader of the Chicago Department of Public Health Monday, his office announced three months after he fired the prior commissioner in the high-profile post.
Dr. Olusimbo “Simbo” Ige is the managing director at the nonprofit Robert Wood Johnson Foundation based in New Jersey. She succeeds Dr. Allison Arwady, who Johnson let go in August, fulfilling a campaign promise despite Arwady’s efforts to keep the job.
Ige has spent much of her career in the East Coast, where she served as assistant commissioner for New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene until early this year. She will officially succeed Arwady as CDPH commissioner on Dec. 4, according to Johnson’s office.
“Dr. Ige is a tremendous addition to not just our administration, but to the City of Chicago,” Johnson said in a statement. “Dr. Ige is someone who understands the balance between hard data and community interaction when assessing public health problems and solutions, and with decades of experience in public health, she brings a clear-eyed understanding of both the challenges and the opportunities that CDPH and our city face, and how we will collectively overcome them.”
Ige’s appointment to CDPH now means two of Johnson’s major cabinet positions remain unfilled: Transportation and Housing. A fourth department that lost its leader amid the mayor’s cabinet shake-up after he assumed office, Planning and Development, saw Johnson tap Ciere Boatright as its full-time commissioner last month.
In her job announcement, Ige stressed her dedication to health equity, which was a focus of hers in New York.
“It is a distinct honor to serve the city of Chicago in this role,” Ige said in a statement. “Through collaboration with the Johnson Administration and with community members in Chicago, I am confident that we can improve the health outcomes for all Chicagoans. I have spent my entire career in the public health field, and I look forward to bringing all that I have learned to CDPH.”
At the New York City Department of Health, Ige focused on community engagement with Black residents, including vaccination outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She also worked on combating hunger, overseeing mental health programs, supporting violence prevention and other health initiatives. Before that, she worked as the executive director of global health for the General Board of Global Ministries, leading health teams in the U.S. and 30 other countries.
She received undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria as well as a master’s in public health from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.
Arwady’s dismissal was one of the most prominent personnel moves Johnson has made during his first six months in office, as she became a household name during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing regular updates on the number of positive cases being reported and details about changing public health restrictions.
But Arwady was also criticized in some circles for being too hasty in loosening pandemic restrictions, especially in reopening public schools. Chicago Teachers Union leaders, who supported Johnson’s bid for mayor, long called for her dismissal, and she went against activists’ demands regarding environmental permitting and mental health services.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last week that Arwady will start working as a director there next year, leading the agency’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
An interim commissioner, Fikirte Wagaw, led the department through the mayor’s first budget negotiations.
Ige was selected after a search committee vetted “dozens” of nationwide candidates. She will serve as the first Black woman to lead CDPH on a permanent basis.